My journey to getting back overseas and experiencing what the world has to offer… and other random thoughts.

Point Break 2015 Review

KilljoySam and I are movie people and as such, I thought it would be fun since I am no longer alone in Chop’s Guide to do reviews on things and see both of our points of view.

With that being said we decided to start this venture with the new version of Point Break.

Enjoy!

-Chop

Howdy y’all,

I am a little late on this but I work all the time and have to catch most movies after they come out on DVD and whatnot.

I am here to give my thoughts on the Point Break redo.

Spoilers abound!

Maybe.

For those who do not know the plot: Thrill-seeking criminals perform a series of daredevil stunts to steal money and gems, only to give it away to the poor and less fortunate. Training for a job with the FBI, young recruit Johnny Utah suspects that only extreme athletes could pull off these heists. Utilizing his own special skills, Utah infiltrates the gang of thieves after befriending their charismatic leader, Bodhi. As Johnny experiences the rush of their lifestyle, his superiors fear that his loyalties are being tested.

So looking at this on the interwebs it does not rate well.

IMDB – 5.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes 9% Audience score it at 31%

Roger Ebert 1.5/4

I liked and disliked a lot of things about the new Point Break so I can understand the ratings but I didn’t think it was all that bad.

Let’s take a look at the new and old cast… The cast that matters.

2015:

Luke Bracey – Johnny Utah – I kept thinking through the entire movie how I really didn’t like him. I still don’t. Never seen him before, I just don’t think he was great for this part. He did not ruin the movie or anything, he just didn’t strike me as having a great range.

Edgar Ramirez – Bodhi – This guy, I liked. He did a good job as Bodhi. I think I have seen him in other things but I do not remember what.

Teresa Palmer – Samsara – Anything she is in, I am happy about not only because she is spank bank material, she generally does a good job in anything I have seen her in up to this point, including Point Break.

Ray Winstone – FBI Agent Angelo Pappas – He did a good job and I like his acting in general.

Delroy Lindo – Instructor Hall – I don’t remember him existing in the original… I just like his acting and wanted to add him to the list… I own this shit!

1991:

Keanu Reeves – Johnny Utah – For the longest time I would hear about Keanu’s lack of range but most movies he has been in, he has been pretty good in… I fucking LOVE John Wick. I have a lot of respect for Keanu because he is a humble guy and really, a decent actor. I liked him more as Johnny Utah than the new cat.

Patrick Swayze – Bodhi – I never was a huge fan of Patrick Swayze but I think both incarnations did a fairly decent job.

Lori Petty – Tyler – Always liked Lori Petty for being kind of weird and though less so now… Tank Girl days and Point Break… definitely spank bankable.

Gary Busey – FBI Agent Angelo Pappas – Gary Busey is an absolute whackjob but you can’t help but like him. I liked him as Pappas but I like Winstone just a little better… Maybe it is the accent.

John C. McGinley – Ben Harp – I don’t even remember him being in the original but John is a good actor with a huge range and that motherfucker is stout. Had to add him just because.

Before I start this, one of the things I found funny in the new one was the name of Johnny Utah.

Now in this one, Utah is not his real name. His real last name is Brigham and Utah is a nickname that they explain later in the movie.

I thought his name was Utah because of the name Brigham as in Brigham Young one of the leading members of the Mormon church (watch him in Hell on Wheels) in the late 1800’s.

Johnny Brigham, Brigham Young, Mormon Church HQ, Utah, Johnny Utah.

I was wrong. Johnny’s mom was a Ute Native, hence Utah…

Mine was better.

His should be Johnny Ute for his to work.

Unless Utes were in Utah… Shit.

Ok… Utes were in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah…

Mine is still better.

Something that also kills me about this movie is the tattoos.

Do not get me wrong, I am all about some tattoos but I have a buddy who hacked off a large part of his arm to be able to become a Missouri State Trooper and I am sure the FBI tattoo code is far more stringent. I do not see how the new Johnny Utah was able to make it through Quantico with hand tattoos.

I think that they should allow all sorts into LE Agencies but so far as I know, that has not started as of yet.

It kept taking me out of the movie magic.

Now to compare the movies and whatnot

The thing that absolutely blasts the old movie out of the water is that it is not based in the Southern People’s Republic of Commiefornia. (SoCal)

The new one takes us all over the world.

South America, Asia, Africa, Europe.

Very nice when compared to the original.

Another thing that stomps the old movie is the number of extreme sports, if I remember the old one well enough it only touched on surfing and Sky diving, the new one hits Surfing, free diving, snowboarding, sky diving, motocross, free climbing, base jumping, and a few others.

I like the plot of this one too. I don’t get into the whole we are killing earth mother Gaia bullshit though I do think people should do their part to be as good to everything as they can but the Ozaki Eight and chasing it is a cool idea.

I like the little bit of Robin Hood story the new one had. It would have been much better if they were robbing taxation facilities and blowing them up around the world.

The obligatory firing the pistol in the air all original/Hot Fuzz style almost made me laugh. I knew they would figure out how to add that but at the same time did not think they would be that cheesy.

And it shows how little Hollywood know about guns or responsible gun owners, which an FBI agent should portray somewhat as they are the only ones anti-gun fucktards want to be able to be armed.

You never fire your weapon in the air, bullets come down and though rare, occasionally hurt people.

Technically, in the original, being in a city, Keanu should have been hit with several charges of attempted murder.

One thing I hate in the new movie is the fact that the hot girl gets taken out.

I am a very hope the guy who deserves the girl gets the girl type of guy… I guess because I don’t.

So I like somewhat happy endings with the girl… I do not like her getting killed.
For the most part, I do not like females being killed in movies unless they are absolute bitches like that cunt Delores Umbridge in the Harry Potterbooks and movies, I prayed for her death.

In this, the original wins out.

My brother said he didn’t like this Point Break as much as the old one, on this, I have to disagree with him.

I didn’t like the main character as much or some of the plot points but the criminals had more depth as a whole and if anything for the views this one wins out for me.

It touches my Wanderlust.

I give Point Break 2015 a Chop’s Score of 3/5

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KilljoySam Point Break 2015 Review.

Let me start this review by saying that I won’t even compare it to the original Point Break made famous by Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. That would be completely unfair to the remake in every single way possible since that movie is one of the best action films of the last 30 years. With that said, I won’t discuss much of the movie because I’m going to make this short and sweet.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you what’s wrong with the movie. It sits at around 1:40 in running length but they could’ve cut a few scenes that were totally unnecessary or they could’ve given more depth to other scenes. Some of the characters seemed to have no place and served no purpose other than to be Bodhi’s little lap dogs. It seemed like the producers and director worked way too hard to make this a PG-13 affair and this caused it to lose some of the reality of extreme sports/FBI affairs.

Talking about the extreme sports side of it; the action sequences were nice although they felt as if they had been shot for a Mtn Dew commercial, circa 1997 or that Red Bull/Monster Energy Drinks were shooting a commercial. Even the wall climbing sequence at Angel Falls in Venezuela felt as if it was rushed and only showed the men hanging by fingers off an impossible angle, hundreds of feet from their death. Speaking of that scene…what the heck was Utah’s reasoning for following Bodhi up the cliff instead of just taking a chopper to the top and waiting for Bodhi to come to him? Oh wait…it’s because they had to make it seem like Utah was an idiot that was only looking for the next thrill instead of an intelligent FBI agent (although he hadn’t actually gotten his badge yet at that point). Which brings me to my next point…Pappas was hating on Utah just a day earlier. Pappas and Hall were accusing Utah of not knowing what side he was on…and then after doing the ridiculous thing of climbing Angel Falls with no ropes, jumping off trying to catch Bodhi, and barely surviving the splash down into rocky water, Pappas just says “I put in a rush on this” and hands Utah an FBI agent badge. If being an idiot and doing the worst possible thing to get to the worst possible outcome is one of the best ways to become an FBI agent, “Here, hold my beer and watch me set myself on fire and run into traffic.”

I spoke previously about characters not being fleshed out. Samsara, Grommet, Roach, and Chowder were all placed in these situations with no story or reasoning for being where they were. Hell, what was Bodhi’s reasoning for half the stuff he did? I don’t know…maybe I missed a 10-second conversation that was meant to tie the characters together and bring some form of enlightenment to the characters.

Okay…on to the good. The scenery was beautiful. I watched it in 720p and was still blown away by how gorgeous the backgrounds were. The ocean, the mountains, the cliffs, and the rain forest shots were tremendous and I would watch more of that kind of cinematography. I like how they included a reason for the men being daredevils, as in the Ozaki 8. Without that purpose, the movie would’ve literally been nothing more than a drawn out Monster Energy commercial because it gave a little more depth to an already skinny plot/story. I liked the cast.

Delroy Lindo and Teresa Palmer were the highlights here but most of the other actors did well in their roles.

One last thing; If I had compared this movie to the original, I would give this movie 1.5 stars out of 5 score. On its own, I feel it deserves a 2.25 out of 5. They should’ve named it something else entirely which would give it more credibility. There was no need for a remake nor was the outcome worth repeated viewings. The original will still be the one that people talk about when they mention Johnny Utah or Bodhi or fun action movie sequences. If you are a fan of action movies, there are worse films to watch but I cannot say that this particular movie will fill a void in your life, make you forget about things for 90 minutes, or be thrilling.

In closing…I have to give this movie a “Hard Pass”. Skip it, watch the original that made Keanu Reeves a big action star, and make some buttery popcorn.